10/14/2004 @ 12:01AM

The Most Expensive U.S. Restaurants

When the French-born chef Alain Ducasse opened his eponymous restaurant atop the Essex House in New York four years ago, with dinner starting at $145 per person without wine, it was the price equivalent of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier.

Ducasse’s restaurant instantly became the most expensive in town, and even the inhabitants of a city in which excess is as natural as jaywalking were shocked at the prices and outraged by his audacity. People whined, moaned and complained about the high prices, but, perhaps inevitably, gourmets and expense accounters alike were drawn to the place, if for no other reason than to determine if any food was worth those prices.

Despite a rocky start, on the strength of its food, service and, bluntly, snob appeal, today it is one of the city’s premier power dining spots. The restaurant did away with some of the more irritating flourishes that had caused sniggers among the congnoscenti when it first opened, such as its ostentatious choice of 20 fountain pens with which to sign the bill, the hand-snipped tea leaves and the obscure cutlery. What else changed? Oh yes, the price for a meal is now $150, before wine or a tip. (The tasting menu starts at $225.) Imagine how much it would be if you tacked on a $2,500 bottle of 1982 Chateau Margaux.

Nevertheless, Ducasse’s position of being the most expensive restaurant in New York–if not the United States–was toppled in February with the opening of Masa in the Time Warner Center. Chef Masa Takayama was the owner of tiny, exquisite Ginza Sushiko in Los Angeles, which for years was the most expensive restaurant in town, with meals costing over $600 for two. Takayama closed Ginza Sushiki to open Masa where tasting menus start at $300 per person at the 26-seat restaurant. Drinks, of course, are extra.

Charging an outrageous price for a meal is one guaranteed way to garner media attention. When New York’s DB Bistro Moderne debuted its foie gras burger in 2001 for $29, it made national headlines and spurned a local burger war. The Old Homestead Steakhouse struck back with a $41 Kobe beef burger, but DB Bistro Moderne eventually won with its $50 burger, made with sirloin steak, a filling of boned short ribs braised in red wine, foie gras, and preserved black truffles. The war spurred even swanky Le Cirque 2000 to unveil its version of a gourmet burger.

Restaurateurs are not the only people who are using high prices to attract attention. The Blue Bar at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan offers a “Martini on the Rock” which starts at $10,000, and includes a diamond of the purchaser’s choice. (No one has ordered it yet.) The World Bar in New York’s Trump Tower is the home of the $50 martini, a mix of Remy XO and Pineau des Charentes, freshly pressed grape juice, topped with Veuve Clicquot champagne and a touch of 23-karat edible liquid gold. With tax and tip, it will come to about $64. The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort in Arizona offers a $57 margarita made with Herradura Seleccion Suprema tequila. But the holder of the Guinness World Record for the most expensive commercially made cocktail goes to the €400 ($489) Ritz Side Car, available at the Hemingway Bar at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. Why the high price? The cocktail contains 1865 Ritz Fine Champagne.

Whenever a restaurant unveils an outrageously priced menu, it will inevitably draw the curious. The real problem is achieving staying power after the novelty has worn off. Since Ducasse opened his restaurant, he’s handed over the kitchen to chef Christian Delouvrier and actually raised the prices. As long as the service and cuisine are top notch, charging extremely high prices almost guarantees a restaurant will become a power dining spot as Ginza Sushiko was for years. Getting a reservation at any top restaurant is hard enough, but taking a client to place like Masa or Alain Ducasse will certainly impress them (or a date).

But the high prices reflect huge investment on behalf of the restaurant. Chef Takayama has also been known to fly to Japan himself to import the freshest and often obscure fish. Bastide, the most expensive restaurant in LA, is owned by Joe Pytka, achieved notoriety when he splashed out on a one kilogram, $35,000 white truffle, which ended up on the menu. Fresh flowers, expensive crystal and china, and constant refurbishment of the dining room and kitchen, not to mention salaries, rent, insurance and other sunk costs all contribute to the bottom line.

While it may not be hard to believe that Manhattan would be home to such pricey eateries, other cities are catching up. The Herbfarm in Seattle charges an average of $152 per person, and French Laundry in San Francisco, $135. In order to determine which were the Most Expensive U.S. Restaurants, we broke the country down by city–otherwise the list would have been almost entirely composed of New York restaurants. We judged the restaurants by determining the average cost of a meal per person with one glass of wine and tip, using data from the Zagat Survey. Remember, wine can vary greatly in price and can easily add several hundred dollars to the final tally, which is why the price of a bottle is not included.

Some of the restaurant prices were surprisingly reasonable, such as the $64 per person average at Tony’s in Houston. If we had added restaurants around the world, the list would have been skewed differently, with the inclusion of Gordon Ramsay in London (£86 per person or $153) or Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saison (£88 per person or $157) in Britain, or L’Osier in Tokyo, where meals average ¥21,700 ($197). We did not include one-off special dinners, although some certainly caught our eye. On December 17, the Hotel Seiyo Ginza in Tokyo will be hosting what it says will be the world’s most expensive meal. Chef Joel Robouchon and wine expert Robert Parker, Jr. will be hosting a Hedonist Dinner where diners can enjoy the last existing bottle of 1870 Chateau Lafite Rothschild and a bottle of 1900 Chateau Margaux. The Hedonist Package includes one seat at the dinner and a three night stay in a suite for $13,000, which includes complimentary breakfast.